casuistry

kasuistiikka The process of answer answering practical questions via interpretation of rules, or of cases that illustrate such rules, especially in ethics; case-based reasoning.
1968, Sidney Monas (translator), Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment 1866.

And yet it would seem that the whole analysis he had made, his attempt to find a moral solution to the problem, was complete. His casuistry had been honed to a razor’s edge, and he could no longer think of any objections.

“And if you lose?” Diana enunciated, through a thin grin. She meant to extract casuistry’s penalty in advance.